Zoom crashes on Windows laptop

If Zoom crashes your Windows laptop resulting in a Blue Screen OR if Zoom itself keeps crashing on your Windows 11/10 PC, then this detailed guide will help you. We have discussed both scenarios in this post.

Zoom is a video and audio conferencing app that lets users attend and conduct webinars, join live chats, etc. Some users are unable to join or conduct meetings through Zoom. According to them, their laptops crash during Zoom meetings. If you are experiencing the same issue with Zoom, this article may help you fix it.

One possible cause of this problem is the incorrect power availability requests sent by the Zoom app. This issue can be fixed by executing the request override command. We will explain the entire process in detail in this article. But before we proceed, first, let’s understand a bit about the Power Availability Requests.

By default, the system power management is enabled in Windows operating systems. Microsoft has added this feature to Windows OS to improve energy efficiency and reduce power consumption. Display power management and automatic sleep are the two important power management features in Windows OS.

When we leave our laptops idle, Windows puts them into sleep mode after a certain time. Users can change this time at their convenience. But, there are some instances when we do not want Windows to turn off the screen or enter into sleep mode. For example, when we play a video on our laptops, the display power management and automatic sleep mode are disabled temporarily. This happens because of the power availability requests sent by the apps or drivers to Windows OS. The Power Availability Requests can prevent the screen from turning off automatically even if the system is left idle.

You can execute the below-listed commands followed by the powercfg command to get the information about the Power Availability Requests:

/requests or -requests

/energy or -energy

/requestsoverride or -requestsoverride

Each of the above commands is used for a different purpose. Let’s see.

The powercfg /requests or powercfg -requests command is used to know the list of drivers and processes that are currently active on your system and are preventing Windows from entering sleep mode.
The powercfg /energy or powercfg -energy command is used to analyze the system’s energy efficiency. When you execute this command, the Powercfg utility analyzes your system for energy efficiency and generates a report for the same. This report is saved at a particular location in the C drive. Windows displays this location after the execution of this command.
The powercfg /requestsoverride or powercfg -requestsoverride command is used to fix the issues that arise due to incorrect Power Availability Requests.

Zoom is crashing your Windows laptop

There could be many reasons why a laptop crashes during Zoom meetings. Some users have reported that their computers crashed during the Zoom meetings due to corrupted or outdated webcam and sound card drivers. On the other hand, some users said that the problem is associated with the graphics card. You can try the following fixes to get rid of this problem:

Update your webcam and sound card drivers
Change the Video settings in Zoom
Turn off the camera and microphone monitoring feature in your antivirus
Turn off the camera and microphone access for the apps you don’t need
Troubleshoot in a Clean Boot State
Run a /requestoverride command for the Zoom app

Below, we have explained all these solutions in detail.

1] Update your webcam and sound card drivers

One possible cause of the problem is the outdated or corrupted webcam or sound card drivers. We suggest you update these drivers from the Device Manager and see if it fixes the problem.

Follow the steps below:

Right-click on the Start Menu and select Device Manager.
Expand the Cameras node.
Right-click on your webcam driver and select Update driver.
Select the Search automatically for drivers option and let Windows install the latest version of the driver on your system.

Follow the same steps to update your sound card driver. You will find the sound card driver in the Sound, video, and game controllers node.

Alternatively, you can also check for driver updates via Windows Settings or download the drivers from the manufacturer’s website.

2] Change the Video settings in Zoom

This solution has worked for AMD graphics card users. However, other users can also try it. Change the Video settings in Zoom and see if it helps.

Follow the steps below:

Launch the Zoom app.
Click on the Settings icon on the top right side.
Select the Video category from the left pane and click Advanced.
Select Direct3D11 in the Video Rendering Method.
Select Auto in Video Rendering Post Processing.
Select Direct Show in the Video Capturing Method.

3] Turn off the camera and microphone monitoring feature in your antivirus

Some antivirus programs have camera and microphone monitoring features. If your antivirus has the same feature, turn it off and restart your computer. Now, check if the issue is fixed.

4] Turn off the camera and microphone access for the apps you don’t need

You can also try turning off the camera and microphone access for the apps you do not need. Here, the steps are different for both Windows 11 and Windows 10 operating systems.

Windows 11

Windows 11 users have to follow the below-listed instructions:

Launch the Settings app.
Select the Privacy & security category from the left side.
Scroll down and select Camera under the App permissions section.
Now, turn off the camera access for the apps that you do not need.
Go back one step and select Microphone under App permissions, and then turn off the microphone access for the apps that you do not need.
Restart your computer.

Windows 10

If you’re a Windows 10 user, follow the steps below:

Launch the Settings app and select Privacy.
Select Camera from the left side and turn off the access for the apps that you don’t need.
Now, select Microphone from the left side and turn off the access for the apps that you do not need.
Restart your computer.

Read: Webcam keeps freezing or crashing in Windows.

5] Troubleshoot in a Clean Boot State

There might be a conflicting software or app on your system that is causing your system to crash during Zoom meetings. You can troubleshoot in a clean boot state to identify that app or software. Once you find it, consider uninstalling it.

6] Run a /requestoverride command for the Zoom app

As explained previously in this article, the incorrect Power Availability Requests by an app interfere with the power management and automatic sleep behaviors of a system. This may lead to several issues. To fix such a problem, you can execute the /requestoverride or -requestoverride command. In your case, the issue might also be occurring due to the incorrect Power Availability Requests sent by the Zoom app.

The powercfg /requestsoverride or powercfg -requestsoverride command has the following structure:

powercfg -requestsoverride <CALLER_TYPE> “<NAME>” <REQUEST>

From the above structure, it is clear that you should know the Caller type, Name, and Request to execute the /requestsoverride command. For this, first, execute the following command in an elevated Command Prompt:

powercfg -requests

The result of the powercfg -requests command will let you know the Caller Type, Name, and Request for the Zoom app. For example, in the above screenshot, the caller type is the [Process], caller id is zoom.exe, and the requests are Display, System, and Awaymode. If you find more than one request for the Zoom app, you need to execute the above command separately for each request one by one.

Hence, in this case, the commands to be executed are:

powercfg -requestsoverride PROCESS “Zoom.exe” AWAYMODE

powercfg -requestsoverride PROCESS “Zoom.exe” SYSTEM

powercfg -requestsoverride PROCESS “Zoom.exe” DISPLAY

Read: Microsoft Teams keeps restarting.

Zoom is crashing on Windows laptop

Some users have also reported that the Zoom app crashes on their Windows laptops. Different users have experienced this issue while performing different tasks on Zoom, like Zoom crashes

While sharing the screen
When users turn on their cameras
On startup
When they join meetings, etc.

Please do not get confused between this issue and the one that we have discussed earlier in this article. Both of these are different issues. When we say, Zoom crashes Windows laptop, we mean a Blue Screen error while using the Zoom app. Whereas, on the other hand when we say Zoom crashes on WIndows laptop, we mean the Zoom app crashes or closes unexpectedly on Windows OS.

Let’s see what fixes you can try to fix this problem.

Disable Antivirus camera protection feature
Close all other apps that have camera access
Disable PowerToys Video Conference Mute mode
Update or reinstall your graphics card driver
Change Zoom Video settings
Clear your web browser cache
Uninstall and reinstall Zoom

Let’s see all these solutions in detail.

1] Disable antivirus camera protection feature

As described earlier in this article, some antivirus programs have a camera protection feature. Some Bitdefender users have accepted that its camera protection feature was conflicting with Zoom and caused it to crash. This might be the case with you. Check if your antivirus has such a feature. If yes, consider disabling it.

2] Close all other apps that have camera access

Zoom also crashes while turning on the camera if you are using any other app parallelly that has your camera access. To fix this issue, close all your apps while using the Zoom client.

3] Disable PowerToys Video Conference Mute mode

Many users have found the PowerToys Video Conference Mute mode conflicting with the Zoom app, causing it to crash on Windows laptops. If you have installed PowerToys on your system, disable its Video Conference Mute mode and check if it helps.

The following steps will help you with that:

Launch PowerToys.
Go to its Settings.
Select Video Conference Mute from the felt side.
Turn off the button next to Enable Video Conference Mute.

4] Update or reinstall your graphics card driver

One possible cause of the problem is the corrupted graphics card driver. You can update your graphics card driver from the Device Manager. The following steps will guide you:

Right-click on Start and select Device Manager.
In the Device Manager, expand the Display adapters node.
Right-click on your graphics card driver and select Update driver.
Now, select Search automatically for drivers.

If this does not work, we suggest you download the latest version of your graphics card driver from the manufacturer’s website and then install it. Before starting the manual installation, you have to uninstall the current version of your graphics card driver.

5] Change Zoom Video settings

Modifying the Video settings in Zoom has helped some users. You should also try this fix. Do as directed below:

Launch Zoom Client.
Open its Settings and select Video from the left side.
Click Advanced and then select Direct3D9 in the Video Rendering Method drop-down menu.
Leave other options to Auto.
Restart Zoom.

Check if the issue persists.

6] Clear your web browser cache

If your web browser freezes or crashes while launching Zoom in it, your web browser’s cache might be the culprit. In this case, clearing your web browser cache can help.

7] Uninstall and reinstall Zoom

If none of the above solutions worked for you, uninstall the Zoom client, download its latest version from the official website of Zoom, and then install it on your system.

Why does my Zoom keep crashing on my laptop?

Different users have experienced crashing issues with Zoom while performing different tasks, like sharing their screens, turning on their cameras, joining the meetings, etc. Therefore, there could be different reasons why your Zoom keeps crashing on your laptop. Some of the most common causes of this problem are:

Corrupted or outdated graphics card drivers.
Your antivirus is blocking Zoom from accessing the camera.
Incorrect Zoom Video settings.
Corrupted web browser cache.

How to fix Zoom lags or freezes during meetings?

If Zoom lags or freezes during meetings, first, you should check the speed of your internet connection. You should have a stable internet connection with good speed to use Zoom without any interruption. You can also try connecting your computer through an ethernet cable, as the wired internet connection is always more stable than the wireless one. If this does not fix your problem, you can try some other fixes, like running an SFC scan, troubleshooting your computer in Clean Boot state, uninstalling and reinstalling Zoom, etc.

Hope this helps.